Chaotic magnetic field lines may answer the coronal heating problem

It is known that the sun's corona is roughly 100 times hotter than its photosphere -- the sun's visible layer. The reason for this mysterious heating of the solar coronal plasma, however, is not yet entirely understood. A research team in India has dev...

It is known that the sun's corona is roughly 100 times hotter than its photosphere -- the sun's visible layer. The reason for this mysterious heating of the solar coronal plasma, however, is not yet entirely understood. A research team in India has developed a set of numerical computations to shed light on this phenomenon, and present this week in Physics of Plasmas, analysis examining the role of chaotic magnetic fields in potential heating mechanisms.